I just don't "get" this!

[Finzzup]

Okay, I'll admit I was never very good in chemistry while in high school and remember thinking I'll never need to know all this info anyway!

Apparently I should've paid more attention if I wanted to get into the fish & aquarium hobby! I'm totally overwhelmed now.

On "cycling" an aquarium: do I really need to do this for a small 6 gallon aquarium that is only going to have a Betta in it? For the first few months I had my Betta, I did a 100% water change once a week and he survived. (Now I don't do that anymore.)

Do I really need to check all these levels of amnonia, etc.? I don't do that with the jar he's in now...

I haven't even started yet and am feeling like I don't know what I'm doing and it seems like an awful lot of time to have a small tank vs. a jar!

 

[Anton Wernher]

Fishless cycling is not the only way to go... many people here prefer it as it is less stressfull on the fish and will help the fish leave a longer life. You can always go the route of cycling with fish .. just be sure to be up on your water changes(btw this route takes longer but you will have your betta in the tank)... If you would like more info regarding cycling with fish just let us know.

 

[Finzzup]

Anton,
Thanks for the reply. I guess I am questioning any type of cycling...

When I first got my Betta, I filled up the jar and added him to it about 3 hours later. No cycling of any sort. I'm not in a hurry to add my Betta to the tank and I WANT to do it right, but it seems to me if I added him to a tank that had been running for a day or two, he should be just as fine as when he was in the jar. There is gravel in the jar just like the aquarium will have...

I plan on cycling the little aquarium as is recommended. But -- would I kill my fish if I put him in the aquarium without doing it???

 

[ArkyLady]

When I first added my betta to his 10gal tank I didn't know what cycling was. I just went to Wal-Mart, bought the tank, set it up and dumped him in there. I didn't test the water or anything (I did use dechlorinator was all). He lived in that tank for nearly 3 years with no problems.

Ammonia levels can get high enough to become fatal rather quickly without the good bacteria growing to eat all the ammonia (fish poop = ammonia). My guess is I didn't have a fatal situation because I only had one fish in the tank.

Does the jar he's in now have some marbles or something in the bottom? I'd assume that there is enough bacteria in there now to take care of the ammonia, so if you put all the marbles or gravels from the bottom of his jar into the new aquarium you should be fine.

If you go that route, I'd do a partial water change every day about an hour after his last feeding for the day. Do this for the first week or two. Then after that you should be fine doing weekly partial water changes.

 

[Turbo]

Cycling

I agree....dont do 100% changes unless you have a disease in the tank, all your fish are dead, and you are starting over. That takes all the bacteria out of the water that you need to keep things balanced. Just do partial water changes so that you are changing the water but are letting it balance out before you change it again. Ammonia, Nitrate, nitrite, and bacteria all live in a cycle and each keeps each other in balance. You will know when you have a balanced tank because your tank always looks clean, your fish dont look stressed(fins torn, scales missing) and if you have plants(which can complicate things) and your tank is set up for them(like mine is) all seem to grow without problems. You just need to give the tank what it needs to survive and thats about it.

 

[morleyz]

Originally posted by ArkyLady
Ammonia levels can get high enough to become fatal rather quickly without the good bacteria growing to eat all the ammonia (fish poop = ammonia). My guess is I didn't have a fatal situation because I only had one fish in the tank.

Just for the record, the majority of ammonia is produced directly by fish respiration. The only reason I say this is that some people think that keeping a super duper clean tank would eliminate decaying material and therefore ammonia.

 

[sChArF]

Do you have a filter?
or gravle in this tank?

 

[amy]

Finzzup,

There are a lot of supporters of fishless cycling on this board, but I don't think it's a real crime to complete a cycle using live fish especially since your betta is already living in a jar. Go ahead and put your betta in the tank and do the cycle with him. He'll be more comfortable that way as long as you keep up with the special maintenance for doing a cycle.

Feed him lightly every other day; I promise he won't starve. Replace 30% of the water every other day until the cycle is complete. Vaccuum the gravel thoroughly during water changes. Don't touch your filter media at all during cycling.

Tanks will cycle by themselves without any monitoring by humans and without any water changes, but doing these two things will help your fish survive the process in a much healthier state.

I recommend getting at least an ammonia kit and a nitrite kit. That way, you know for sure when your tank has been fully cycled (and thus you will know when you can stop all that obsessive worrying about if you've really cycled or not). A nitrate kit is a nice confirmation of a completed cycle but is not really necessary. One thing that a nitrate kit will help you figure out is how often you should do regular water changes once the tank has been fully cycled.

Can you cycle without test kits? Yes, but you'll never really sure when the tank has cycled. It could be in 2 weeks, or it could be in 2 months. Having test kits on hand takes away a lot of that uncertainty. Alternately, you can make regular trips to the LFS with water samples and have them test it for you.

Good luck with the tank and don't be afraid to ask for more help!

 

[wetmanNY]

ArkyLady has it right! Net him out and put him in a bowl of his own present water. Take out all the marbles/gravel and lay it in his new tank in a thin layer. He doesn't need more than three-quarters of an inch of substrate, if that.

My additional suggestion is that floating plants will soften the "cycling" of his new tank. Keep a bit more than half the surface densely planted with floating Duckweed and Water Sprite. A betta is more content with some cover over his head. Certainly he behaves more naturally, snaking through the floating roots.